Brown Sugar Pavlovas with Mascarpone Cream

My husband and I have never been out to dinner for Valentine’s Day. On our first Valentine’s Day together, only a couple months after we started dating back in college, my husband took me on a picnic. He had spent the morning tucking homemade sandwiches and cookies into a cute little picnic basket and afterwards we went to Barnes and Noble. Since I don’t love eating in the grass, we don’t picnic as much anymore but we always make something a little messy and labor intensive together for a special dinner at home. We love being in the kitchen together and so we celebrate each other by doing something that we enjoy! In the past we’ve made gnocchi, homemade pasta, beef bourginon…anything that takes a little extra effort. This year we are making chicken bhuna (which is my favorite Indian curry) and homemade naan. Love is in the air!

Also since it’s Valentine’s week, your Instagram feed is probably starting to look a little like fifty shades of chocolate, so I thought I would switch it up and give you these brown sugar pavlovas. Sometimes, meringues and pavlovas can be overly sweet and not my favorite dessert, but the addition of brown sugar gives these a more rounded, caramelized flavor. The mildness of the mascarpone and sharpness of the fruit also helps to off set that sweetness. These are great to help you use up leftover egg whites and fruit that is starting to go bad. I used a little of the leftover beet creme anglaise to give the mascarpone cream that pink tint, but you could definitely leave it out or play with adding another flavor (strawberry or raspberry jam would be great). They are also fun to decorate so I encourage you to play around with them!

Brown Sugar Pavlovas with Mascarpone Cream

Yield: 4- 4” pavlovas

Ingredients: 

for the pavlovas: 

3 egg whites (125 g)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

for the mascarpone cream:

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 heavy cream

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp beet creme anglaise *optional*

Procedure: 

For the pavlovas: 

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Use a ramekin or round bowl to trace 4 4” circles on a piece of parchment paper. Flip the parchment over so that the lines are on the bottom side and place it on a sheet pan. 

2. Whisk egg whites, sugar, and brown sugar together in a heat proof bowl and place over a medium saucepan with simmering water. Cook, whisking often until warm and frothy and the sugar is dissolved. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer. 

3. Beat with the whisk attachment on medium high speed until stiff peaks form and meringue is cool and glossy (about 5 minutes). 

4. Divide the meringue into 4 and spread inside the drawn circles. Create a small nest by pushing the sides a little higher than the center. 

5. Bake for 40 minutes, until meringues are dry and can be gently lifted off of the pan. Turn oven off and let meringues cool in the oven for at least 1 hour. 

For the mascarpone cream: 

1. Place all ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer and whip until smooth and soft peaks form. Don’t over mix or the mixture will become gritty. 

To assemble: 

1. Filled cool meringue nests with mascarpone cream and top with fresh fruit and herbs. 

Chocolate Soufflés with Beet Crème Anglaise

I think that February is the best month for desserts. It’s post-holiday madness, which means there are less extraneous events and celebrations to take up your time, and it’s still technically winter so cozy activities, like baking projects, are high up on our to-do list. Also, Valentine’s Day gives us an excuse to consume more chocolate than we should and a reason to bake something special for someone we love. Enter these chocolate soufflés.

Soufflés can be super daunting, but they don’t have to be! The backbone of soufflé making comes down to basically two sauces- pastry cream and crème anglaise. They are very similar in how they are made and are both a milk/cream based sauce thickened with eggs. The only real difference is that pastry cream also has a starch added to it, which means you cook it slightly longer to cook out the flour taste. To make these soufflés, you start by making a chocolate pastry cream. You then beat a bunch of air bubbles into egg whites and sugar to create a smooth, luxurious meringue that you fold into the pastry cream along with some more eggs. Lots of eggs. Ta-da! You have a soufflé.

When the soufflés come out of the oven (working super quickly so that they don’t deflate), you use a spoon to poke a small hole in the top of each soufflé and you pour some creme anglaise inside. This creates a kind of melted ice cream in the pudding part of a molten cake feel and it’s perfect. I wanted my crème anglaise to be pink because Valentine’s Day and all, but I wanted to color it using something that would provide a subtle, yet complex flavor. I chose to use beets and simply steeped them in my milk before making the crème anglaise to give that pretty fuchsia color. You could use strawberries or raspberries, or nothing at all, if you wanted to, but the beets give the final product a unique flavor that I love.

Soufflés are very time sensitive and need to be served right as they come out of the oven, but you can make the pastry cream and the crème anglaise ahead of time. This makes for a pretty simple, but show-stopping dessert, perfect for the ending to your Valentine’s dinner!

Chocolate Souffles with Beet Creme Anglaise

Yield: 8- 6oz ramekins

Ingredients:

for the beet creme anglaise: 

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 beet, chopped

for the chocolate pastry cream:

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 egg 

1.5 oz egg yolks (2-3)

3 T butter

6 oz dark chocolate, chopped

for the souffles: 

chocolate pastry cream, recipe above

4 egg yolks

5 egg whites

1/4 cup + 1 T sugar

Procedure:

To make the creme anglaise: 

1. Heat milk and cream in a medium saucepan until simmering at the edges (between 180-190 degrees). Add the beets, remove from heat, and cover with a lid. Let steep for 30 minutes and then strain out beets. 

2. After the milk is strained, return to heat and bring back to a simmer. 

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar to make a paste. 

4. When the milk is hot, pour some of it (about half) into the egg mixture, whisking continually. Pour the egg mixture back into the milk and return to heat. Heat, stirring continually, until thickened and sauce coats the back of a spoon. You don’t want this to boil, but you want it get up to about 180 degrees. 

5. Strain through a mesh strainer and stir in vanilla extract. Set aside. 

To make the pastry cream: 

1. Heat milk and cream in a medium saucepan until simmering. 

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and flour. Add the eggs and egg yolks and whisk to form a paste. 

3. When the milk is simmering, add about half of it to the egg mixture, whisking continually. Pour the egg mixture back into the rest of the milk and return to the heat. Cook, stirring continually, until boiling and thickened. 

4. Pour pastry cream through a mesh strainer. 

5. Add butter and chocolate and whisk until smooth and combined. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly to the surface of the pastry cream and let sit at until room temperature. 

To make the souffles: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 8 6-oz ramekins with butter (all the way up the sides) and sprinkle with sugar. 

2. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Start mixing on low speed and, once frothy, increase speed to medium. When the whites start to get foamy, sprinkle in sugar and increase to high speed. Whip until medium-stiff peaks form. 

3. Add egg yolks to the chocolate pastry cream and whisk until smooth. 

4. Fold meringue into pastry cream mixture in three batches. 

5. Divide batter into prepared ramekins and bake for 20 minutes. Do not open the oven door!

6. Remove from oven and immediately use a spoon or a knife to poke a hole in the center of each souffle. Pour creme anglaise into the middle of the souffle and serve warm. 

Lemon Bars with Rosemary Shortbread

This week there were 25 naked lemons in my refrigerator. This is part of the problem when you bake for a living. Remnants of lemons, deli containers of egg whites, and multiple tupperwares filled with caramel find their way into your fridge and suddenly you have to figure out what to do with them. This week’s surplus resulted in these delicious little lemon squares that are perfect to give as holiday treats!

Now, I know that lemon bars feel very “springy”. They are supposed to be made when it’s warm outside and our Instagram feeds are filled with fruity cocktails and ice cream sandwiches. But I think that winter is the perfect time for a good lemon bar. From November to April, citrus fruits are at their peak and are often overflowing from our fruit bowls, which can be otherwise barren for lack of spring and summer produce. These bars are also easy to put together, only require two components, and can be cut into little bite-sized squares, perfect for stuffing into Christmas cookie tins and giving out to co-workers. People will thank you as the tangy-ness brings a welcome respite in a season filled with sugar and chocolate and nuts.

So look no further for your next holiday baking activity. I adapted this recipe from the newest issue of Bon Appetit and you could definitely substitute lemons with another citrus (orange or grapefruit would be delightful!). The rosemary in the shortbread gives an earthiness and floral quality that complements the sharpness of the lemon curd, leaving you with a perfect bite and successfully clearing my refrigerator of all of my zest-less lemons. Now to figure out what to do with all those egg whites…

Lemon Bars with Rosemary Shortbread

Ingredients: 
For the shortbread: 

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp granulated sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into pieces 

2 egg yolks

For the lemon curd:

3 large eggs

3 egg yolks

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

Zest of 1 large lemon

1 cup fresh lemon juice 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces

Procedure: 

To make the shortbread: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper so that there is at least 3 inches overhang on each side. Set aside. 

2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, powdered sugar, sugar, salt, and rosemary and pulse a few times to mix together. Add the cold butter and pulse until the largest pieces of butter are pea-sized. Add egg yolks and pulse until dough begins to come together in clumps. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan and use your fingers to press it into an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Bake for 25-28 minutes, until golden brown. 

To make the curd: 

1. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. 

2. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch to break up clumps. Then transfer the sugar/cornstarch mixture to a medium-large saucepan, add eggs and egg yolks and whisk until smooth and sugar is mostly dissolved. 

3. Whisk in lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. 

4. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the curd begins to bubble around the edges and thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Simmer, still whisking, for about 1 more minute and remove from heat. Strain curd into a large bowl and add butter, piece by piece, whisking to incorporate after each piece. 

5. Pour curd into the pan and spread evenly over the shortbread. Bake for 20-25 minutes until curd is set (there will be a slight wobble in the middle) and then let cool. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill overnight. 

6. Before serving, slice into squares and dust with powdered sugar and fresh rosemary.